Building NWChemEx from scratch takes 2 to 3 hours on the CI servers. There are different ways we can reduce this time through Github actions by caching and/or using Docker images with cached stages. I don't see any issue on the CI project board directly on this topic , so I wanted to create an issue to align efforts and get feedback.
Currently, I am looking into these solutions:
Using ninja instead of make:
ninja reduces the build time significantly. i.e. libint build on the CI server reduces to 42 minutes from 80. With PR NWChemEx-Project/DeveloperTools#117, we can now enable it on all the repos. The only exception is currently TAMM, which requires make.
Enabling ccache:
There is a Github action that enables saving the ccache data between the builds. I tested it on the Benchmarks repo and it gets 45% hit rate.
Using a Docker image with libint and other dependencies installed.
Instead of starting from a plain Ubuntu image, we could start the build with an image with all the dependencies particularly libint installed.
We can also put all the build into a Dockerfile (we already have one, but needs to be updated) and use a Github action that enables cached layers for building the image. This can replace the current build workflow, but I guess it will be better to have it as a separate action. We can also push these images to docker hub and/or make them downloadable as artifacts of the workflow. Maybe I should create another issue related to this action.
I have seen that with the addition of ninja and ccache build time goes down to 30 minutes. If this sounds reasonable, I can submit PRs for 1 and 2 to implement these changes and work on 3 and 4.
Building NWChemEx from scratch takes 2 to 3 hours on the CI servers. There are different ways we can reduce this time through Github actions by caching and/or using Docker images with cached stages. I don't see any issue on the CI project board directly on this topic , so I wanted to create an issue to align efforts and get feedback.
Currently, I am looking into these solutions:
ninjainstead ofmake:ninjareduces the build time significantly. i.e. libint build on the CI server reduces to 42 minutes from 80. With PR NWChemEx-Project/DeveloperTools#117, we can now enable it on all the repos. The only exception is currently TAMM, which requiresmake.ccache:ccachedata between the builds. I tested it on the Benchmarks repo and it gets 45% hit rate.libintbuild. There might be other places to use it as well, i.e. to separate build and test. (see issue https://github.com/NWChemEx-Project/.github/issues/14.)Dockerfile(we already have one, but needs to be updated) and use a Github action that enables cached layers for building the image. This can replace the current build workflow, but I guess it will be better to have it as a separate action. We can also push these images to docker hub and/or make them downloadable as artifacts of the workflow. Maybe I should create another issue related to this action.I have seen that with the addition of
ninjaandccachebuild time goes down to 30 minutes. If this sounds reasonable, I can submit PRs for 1 and 2 to implement these changes and work on 3 and 4.